WWE Teases Roman Reigns' Next Challenger for the WWE Universal Championship

By Connor Casey

Roman Reigns once again closed another WWE pay-per-view with a victory this past Sunday, defeating Big E in a Champion vs. Champion match at Survivor Series. His current reign as WWE Universal Champion passed 450 days this week and based on the rumors about Brock Lesnar and The Rock being his next two WrestleMania opponents it doesn't seem like "The Tribal Chief" will be dropping the title anytime soon. But WWE still needs to give him a new challenger, and in the latest ad for Friday Night SmackDown the question was posed, "who will be brave enough to step up to Roman Reigns now?"

The wrestlers that flashed during the ad included Drew McIntyre, Cesaro Happy Corbin, Jinder Mahal, Sheamus, Jeff Hardy, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods. Of that group, it seems like Hardy is trying to separate himself from the pack with his recent interview comments. 

"I guess there's three [goals] I think about more than anything," Hardy recently told Sportskeeda's SP3 (h/t WrestleZone). "And number one would probably be to be the Universal Champion, ideally defeating Roman Reigns because that's one of my dream matches, because his stuff is so powerful now. Even, you know, I've got to mix it up with Seth [Rollins] in the ring, and even Dean Ambrose back before he left. And they were The Shield, that was their big deal, so now Roman's the one guy, we never came in contact with each other. So I just feel like I kinda belong in that story, and that I will belong in that story.

He echoed those sentiments while speaking with "Stone Cold" Steve Austin on the latest Broken Skull Sessions — "I've talked about this a lot lately, Roman Reigns. The Bloodline, they aggravate me, and he always talks about being the head of the table. I want to break the head of the table."

Hardy hasn't held a world championship since 2009 and since coming back to WWE he's been used primarily as a tag team and midcard wrestler. But would one last run at a world championship for Hardy be interesting? Let us know down in the comments! 

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